patient

On October 24th, 2022 I received the phone call that would change my life. Enjoying a ten minute bubble bath, I initially ignored the vibrating phone along the tub's porcelain edge. My husband had recently embarked on an overseas business trip, and for the first time I was parenting as a single parent. Exhausted, my throat sore, I had just put my seven month old son to bed and wanted nothing more than to snuggle into my cozy bed and sleep. I never did get to sleep. 

The morning of 9/11/01 was a doubly surreal experience for me. I was waiting for an appointment with my doctor at M. D. Anderson's Leukemia Center in Houston while chaos erupted in America. The waiting room was packed, as usual, with people at various stages of their own life-threatening events, and I was struck by the relative calm in this room compared to the state of disbelief and panic playing out on TVs throughout the country.